


Saving You

by ashtin



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Character Death, Heavy Angst, M/M, Minor Character Death, Pay Attention To Warnings, Rated M For Lots Of DEATH, Wow, all of skz are the same age, anyway, can u believe i'm writing woochan, descriptions of dying, i dont know what else to tag rn, it's going to get sad, will add tags as they're needed
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-20
Updated: 2019-04-22
Packaged: 2020-01-23 00:48:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18538900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashtin/pseuds/ashtin
Summary: Woojin can see deaths before they happen; an ability that some might consider useful in the sense that he could use it to save the people he sees before they can die.Though, aside from the fact that the visions themselves freak him out, there are a few rather unfortunate flaws to his ability:- he can only see the deathifhe's at the location where the person will die- he has no way of knowing exactlywhenthe death will occur- the cause of death in the visions is unclear; he mainly only gets to see them take their last breathsHe witnessed countless deaths over the years as they moved around from place to place. He never knew whether he should feel relieved that he never actually knew the people he would see dying or feel horrible for not being able to help prevent their deaths from happening. But he couldn’t bear it if he somehow found the person and got to know them and still could not find a way to prevent the death. So he remained indifferent to it all. He bottled everything up and decided against letting anyone ever get close to him in fear of the worst.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Please read this story with caution. Woojin sees _deaths_ which means there will be descriptions of people dying in various ways throughout the entire story. I'll warn you now that the first one is in the prologue and it is suicide. If that is something of a trigger for you then please do NOT read. I will give warnings at the beginnings of chapters, but not extremely detailed ones.

It happened for the first time when he was only five years old.

Recess was the one part of his day when he got to be himself and felt free from all of the stresses of a five year old child. There was no one to tell him to use his inside voice, he didn’t have to be careful of coloring outside any lines, and best of all, he didn’t have to make any hard decisions. He really didn’t like having to choose which color went best to describe an object on a flash card, or which letter said object might start with when spelling it out. No, the hardest decision the five year old would ever face during recess was choosing which activity he might like to immerse himself in first.

Most days he chose the seesaw; having deemed it the more boring activity of the abundance of choices, he figured he might as well get it out of the way to make more time for the even more fun things! He would work his way from there, usually to the monkey bars, a round or two on the slide, and then he would volunteer himself to spin the merry-go-round for a while until his lungs needed a break. Of course he took his own turn riding on it as well, but he couldn’t stand to be on it for too long because he would begin to feel dizzy quite fast. He didn’t like the feeling of being dizzy, it made his head feel all funny.

If he knew how to count minutes on the round clock that hung on the wall outside of the school, he could tell you exactly how much time he spent on all of those activities, but he didn’t know how yet, so he couldn’t. What he  _ did  _ know is that whenever the longer hand was on the number  **10** he would drop anything he was doing to go and play on the swing set. He knew he could play on the swings for a long amount of time, well until the same hand finally hit the  **12** , which at least  _ felt  _ like a long time at that age.

It was a day just like every other, he looked to the clock on the wall and saw the hand was almost on the  **10** . He dropped the ball he’d been bouncing before without a second thought and made the trek across the small schoolyard. He smiled when he saw that there were only two swings occupied, meaning he had three others to choose from. The middle one felt too crowded so that one was always out of the question, but the one all the way to the left end was good. It was closest to the chain link fence that surrounded the schoolyard and he really loved to watch the cars that drove by. Some days he could count as many as three cars that looked just like his mom’s!

His smile turned into a curious frown and his eyebrows furrowed as his short legs carried him closer to the swing set. Why was there a stranger in the schoolyard? Why did none of the other children seem to notice or care about the man being there? But as he got closer the strange man didn’t look… real. The man was walking toward the swings, toward his favorite swing! He ran forward to tell the man he couldn’t use his swing but all words left him in the next second when the man was no longer  _ standing  _ by the swings.

The strange man was now hanging limply from the highest bar of the swing set frame, chains from the swings were somehow tied around his neck.

He was sucked back to reality when screams from the other children began to ring in his ears.  _ Finally!  _ Now they could see what he was seeing. Only, when he blinked again the man was gone and he was now surrounded by the other students and his teacher.

_ “Did you see his eyes!?”  _

_ “What was wrong with him?!” _

_ “Why did he look so scary!?” _

_ “I want to call my mommy! I’m scared of him!” _

All of the questions he hoped were about the strange man were being aimed at him!

“Woojin?” His teacher asked in a sweet voice but it didn’t hide the obvious uncertainty in her eyes when she looked at him. “Are you okay?”

He nodded, “Yes, but the man up there was not.” 

He pointed to his favorite swing and then angled his arm upward until he was pointing at the top bar.

His teacher, and some of the other children, looked in the direction he pointed and then slowly back to him.

“What man, sweetie? I don’t see anyone there.” She smiled, “Oh, do you have an imaginary friend? Is he nice?”

He shook his head back and forth vigorously. No, there  _ was  _ a man! He’d seen him with his own eyes! And the man was definitely no friend of his, imaginary or not.

“No, there was a man up there. He was hanging by the swing’s chains. He was dead.” He stated simply as though it was normal everyday small talk.

His teacher’s eyes grew wide and she began to stand up from her crouched position, “I think that’s enough recess for today class. Woojin, I’m going to call your mommy and have her come and pick you up, okay? Make sure to get some rest at home.”

“ _ B-but, Miss Lee! _ ” Multiple children had crowded around him and his teacher at this point, but only the few nearest to them spoke up.

“His eyes! They were really scary! Woojin’s eyes were all white! The middle was gone!” One particularly vocal student informed.

His teacher didn’t know what to think of the situation other than to get the kids inside and calmed down and to have him sent home.

Why did he have to leave? Had he done something wrong? The other children now looked scared of him, but why hadn’t they been scared of the stranger? His head hurt trying to think about all of this and for once he began to wish he was doing flashcards or coloring rather than being at recess.

‒

Not even a week later the strange man had made the six o’clock news his parents watched every night after dinner. The man was found dead, hanging from a swing set at the Elementary’s schoolyard. Suicide.


	2. Glitter In The Air

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time slowed down as the vision played out before him, the car now crawling at a snail’s pace. Water droplets hit the windows hard, but outside the vehicle they glittered in the air, and Woojin thought he might find the sight almost beautiful had it not been for such an unfortunate situation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mentions of death:  
> -car accident  
> -natural causes  
> -cancer  
> -gunshot wound

**• 13 Years Later •**

He and his family moved house from time to time. Not because of him -  _ never  _ because of him. There just always seemed to be better places to live and nicer things to see in other parts of the country. But with each move came the promise that  _ this  _ one would last longer, or maybe  _ this  _ one would be  _ the  _ one that made his parents want to settle. Those promises were never seen through, of course, but he hoped that his parents would stick to the one constant promise they’d been assuring him over the years; no matter how many times they moved he would be able to start and finish high school in the same place.

 

Now, senior year, just over four weeks until graduation, he remembered that promise. It had really seemed like his parents were going to keep it, but for the first time in however long he could remember, he felt hatred toward his parents as they prepared for yet another move. He tried not to show it, but it was made known in little ways; if there were packed boxes in the kitchen he would unpack them halfway, he exited out of the tab on his parents’ computer that had pictures of their new house and instead brought up the digital proofs of his senior pictures that were already on his graduation invitations to be sent out to other family members. The day before their moving truck was scheduled to arrive he found a pamphlet that advertised the new school he was supposed to attend for the remaining weeks of the semester. He crumpled it up and threw it in the garbage can.

 

Moving day came and he hated this part more than anything. He was used to having to say goodbye to people he hadn’t cared enough to get close to, but this time was different. In the four years they’d managed to stay in one place he’d actually made friends! Didn’t his parents care at all that he’d be having to part with the two most important people in his life? Maybe if he’d brought them around more often, maybe if he’d begged his parents to possibly let him stay with one of them…

 

_ Too late,  _ he thought, sulking to himself as he walked further into the city. He was meeting his friends at a nearby cafe, his favorite one, to say his goodbyes before leaving for a new town across the country.

 

“It’s not like we’ll never talk again, Woojin!” One of the friends, Jaehyun, reasoned. Woojin remained silent, knowing that if he tried to talk he’d either scream or cry out of anger. These guys were his friends! He’d never made such nice friends in all of the other places he’d lived, and it really hurt him to have to leave them behind.

 

“Yeah,” Jungwoo agreed and they both watched Woojin silently swirl his straw around his coffee, not bothering to look either of them in the eyes. “You have both of our phone numbers, just text us or even call us!” Jungwoo tried again, but received no response.

 

He supposed he might, but what was the point in trying to keep in touch with someone who was moving all the way across the country? Maybe if he was just moving a couple of towns over, sure, but it wasn’t like his friends would be able to visit him when they pleased and he certainly didn’t have the money to take a day and travel to see them, either. They would all graduate soon enough, but his friends had big dreams that included plans for University where he had none. He supposed that whatever dream he might have had must have escaped him somewhere along the way while moving around so much.

 

A text from his mother alerted him that it was time to go, well... that he was already well over twenty minutes late to be exact. That may or may not have been done on purpose, because yes, he was still very much angry with his parents.

****•** ••**

The life he lived up to this point had been a little less than what most people would consider normal. His teacher had told his mother about what he’d said to her during recess about the man and they both passed it off as a child’s wild imagination. They then passed it off as a strange coincidence when the death made the news a week later and tried to forget any of it ever happened after that. It didn’t happen again until he was seven years old when he and his parents were visiting his great grandmother in a nursing home;

 

_ “Mommy! That lady just died!”  _ He’d tugged harshly on the hem of his mother’s blouse until she crouched down to his level because he knew he was supposed to be using his inside voice. It just so happened that his “inside voice” came out as more of a stage whisper, causing everyone within earshot to turn their heads at his declaration.

 

_ “Woojin! That is not something to joke about in a place like this!”  _ She scolded him and promised that they would be talking about his inappropriate behavior when they got home.

 

They never did ‘talk about it’.

 

It seemed as though his mother wanted to forget about her child’s weird prediction once more. That was how she dealt with the incidents every time after that, as well.

 

He stopped talking about the things he would see around the age of thirteen when he realized that no one was ever going to believe him, not teachers, not his friends, and not his parents. He nearly stopped talking altogether when he was old enough to realize that these occurrences were not just something of his imagination. He had never had any interest in the nightly news that his mother liked to watch while reviewing papers from work, nor had he cared about the daily newspapers his father read over religiously every morning while sipping his coffee. That was until he began to recognize the faces in the obituary section that stared back at him from across the table while he tried to eat his toast before school. He had helped his mother make dinner one night, only to lose his appetite when the announcement of a fatal car crash flashed across the TV screen when he was walking through the living room toward the kitchen.

 

He witnessed countless deaths over the years as they moved around from place to place. He never knew whether he should feel relieved that he never actually knew the people he would see dying or feel horrible for not being able to help prevent their deaths from happening. But he couldn’t bear it if he somehow found the person and got to know them and still could not find a way to prevent the death. So he remained indifferent to it all. He bottled everything up and decided against letting anyone ever get close to him in fear of the worst.

 

The two friends he made in high school were special cases; Jaehyun approached him first and convinced him to become active in their sports club and Jungwoo claimed him as his own the moment he set a foot in the door five minutes before a club meeting was supposed to start. Jungwoo was a new experience all on his own; he never failed to tell Woojin just how adorable he found him and showered the new boy in endless praises throughout practices. Jaehyun was quieter about it, but his fondness of Woojin could be seen in the way he would randomly ruffle Woojin’s hair and always offered to treat him to snacks or the coffee drinks that he knew Woojin liked. The two of them basically planted themselves right into his life without him even realizing it and before he knew it he had two more friends than he’d ever had in his entire life.

 

They never thought twice about why he liked to wear sunglasses at odd hours or even indoors sometimes, instead they just passed it off as sensitive eyesight. If they were around when he had a particularly gruesome vision, they never questioned his peculiar behavior afterward when he was all shaken up and just wanted to go home, and they were always quick to ask if he was sure he wanted to be alone or not. Sometimes his answer was yes, he wanted to be alone, but over the years he found that being around the other two boys instantly put him in a better mood and made the aftershock of visions slightly more bearable. 

****•** ••**

He always felt light headed at the thought of even setting foot into a hospital of any sort, but when Jaehyun’s mother fell sick during the summer after junior year he knew he’d have to make an exception.

 

It was cancer, Woojin and Jungwoo were informed over the phone as they made their way to a flower shop in town.

 

He put his sunglasses on once they pulled into a parking spot at the hospital; it was overcast and slightly sprinkling rain outside, but he would blame it on the harsh fluorescence of the lights inside the hospital. He knew he would have to be prepared for the absolute worst, but nothing could have prepared him for the horror of seeing Jaehyun’s mother smiling brightly at Jungwoo and himself as they walked into the room and then almost immediately being thrown into a vision.

 

He was thankful for the fact that it was quick and that she hadn’t looked to be in any pain, but tears still threatened to fall from his eyes when he came to from his episode. Jungwoo was looking up at him worriedly and asked him repeatedly if he was okay. Woojin only nodded, he didn’t trust himself to speak, knowing he would have probably began to cry if he even tried. He would blame the way he had suddenly put all of his weight against the one of the nearest walls on one of his random dizzy spells that his friends knew of him to have from time to time.

 

He knew there was not going to be any way to prevent it; the cancer itself was treatable if caught in one of its earlier stages, but it had already spread too far and her chances of surviving were slim. He hated the fact that he felt useless, not that he didn’t feel the same way every time he witnessed some other stranger taking their last breath, but this time was so much different. 

 

Though, however slim his mother’s chances of living were, Jaehyun still found it in himself to keep an optimistic outlook on her recovery. Woojin was envious of his friend’s tenacity. He wished that he could share the same views on the whole situation, he wished that these stupid visions didn’t exist, or at least he wished that having them would grant him some sort of power in order to prevent the visions from coming true. But he knew he wished in vain. He also knew that his friend would very much regret it if he didn’t spend as much time as he could with his mother once she was gone. So, that evening when he arrived back at home, he sent out a text to the other two boys suggesting that they take turns staying with Jaehyun’s mother during her time in the hospital. His friends agreed and they went on to set up who would take what day.

 

It was a pretty good system that went on for three weeks; all three boys took turns visiting her so that someone would be with her for the majority of every day. Some days, mainly weekends, two or all three of them would be there. She would stay asleep for most of the time Woojin was there by himself, but he didn’t mind. He busied himself with his summer reading list while drinking mediocre coffee from the hospital’s cafeteria that he had nurses bring to him. He never wandered anywhere into the hospital that wasn’t necessary, it was strictly from the entrance and to the designated room with his eyes focused on the ground until he reached the right door. 

 

Something went wrong on one of the days during the third week of their visits. Woojin couldn’t remember exactly what day of the week it was, but he could narrow it down to Monday or Thursday since those were the days Jaehyun always offered to visit alone.

 

He’d only left his mother’s room to go get himself something to eat; he was gone for less than ten minutes. On his way back he could hear multiple different beeping noises from down the hallway. He found it strange that they were so loud, but he figured it was nothing out of the ordinary when he saw that most of the doors to patient’s rooms were usually kept ajar.

 

He slowed to a stop at the doorway nearest to him; if he strained his ears he could just barely hear the steady beeping of a heart monitor and various other machines coming from the room, but it was so quiet in comparison to the blaring noises from further down the hall. Angry loud beeping never meant anything good… 

 

His heart rate quickened as he began to walk again, only to completely halt in place once more when two nurses hastily brushed past him just as two other nurses left quickly from the last room on the right side of the hallway. 

 

-

 

Woojin found cemeteries peaceful. They were mainly made up of those who were already deceased, which meant no unwanted surprise visions for the most part. However, the cemetery was far from peaceful on the morning of Jaehyun’s mother’s funeral.

 

Woojin had a hold of Jaehyun’s hand on one side of him; the other’s grip tightened and loosened various times throughout the ceremony, and a clinging Jungwoo bawling his eyes out on Woojin’s shoulder occupied his other side. Woojin himself was able to hold it together for the most part with a few silent tears managing to escape here and there.

 

The funeral was a small affair; immediate family that lived nearby and those who were able to fly in on short notice made it as well. A few other members from their sports club attended and Woojin found himself feeling bad for never bothering to remember some of their names. He would make the effort to learn them, he promised himself as each of the boys came over to where the three of them stood to offer their condolences to Jaehyun. 

**•••**

Woojin yawned as they pulled out of the parking lot of what his mother swore would be the last pit-stop before they arrived at their destination. They had drove all day long and now, as the sun was just starting to set, Woojin wondered how traveling could be so exhausting. All he’d done to contribute to the move was throw a couple of suitcases into the back of their van! And yet he felt like he could sleep for days after having done nothing but sit in the cramped back seat for countless hours.

 

He supposed he could take a nap to help pass the time. There wasn’t much of a scenery; some fields here, forests full of tall trees there. Every once in awhile he’d spot a cow grazing in one of the many fields they’d come by, and that was about as exciting as his day had been. 

 

He decided to take the nap after little debate of whether or not he wanted to deal with grogginess upon arriving at the new house. He was fairly confident that he’d be able to shake it off quick enough to be of use when unloading the necessary boxes they would need for the first night’s stay in the new place.

 

Woojin removed his sunglasses, mainly for comfort, but he didn’t feel the need for them now that the sun had disappeared behind what looked like rain clouds. All the better, he thought, rain always made for a peaceful sleep.

 

He’d just found a comfortable spot against the window behind the driver’s seat and closed his eyes when his entire body seemed to freeze. He felt weighed down and couldn’t bring himself back up into a sitting position as hard as he tried.

 

_ Not now,  _ he pleaded to whatever deity dumped this ‘gift’ on him.  _ Please, not right now! _

 

He gasped for air as if his lungs had been frozen along with the rest of his body, knowing just how helpless he was once his eyes were forcefully thrown open.

 

Time slowed down as the vision played out before him,  the car now crawling at a snail’s pace. Water droplets hit the windows hard, but outside the vehicle they glittered in the air, and Woojin thought he might find the sight almost beautiful had it not been for such an unfortunate situation. 

 

Woojin’s eyes landed on a teenage boy, he looked young, but he couldn’t be any younger than Woojin himself. The boy’s skin was sickly pale, which made the bruising around one of his eyes stand out, and the cut along his bottom lip shine a brighter red than Woojin ever thought possible. The boy’s chest rose rapidly despite how everything else around them had slowed down, and Woojin’s heart sank as he shifted his gaze lower.

 

The white button-up shirt he wore was stained red in multiple spots, and as Woojin looked further he saw how the boy held one hand to the left of his abdomen over the largest spot of red.

 

Woojin hated this! He felt so helpless as he sat there and watched the boy’s hand lose its grip and fall limply beside him on the ground. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> twitter: @lovelyjjix  
> cc: curiouscat.me/lovelyjjix
> 
> It will be a while before the next chapter, but please look forward to it~!

**Author's Note:**

> This story will have absolutely NO update schedule and will probably have long breaks between chapters. But I wanted to get the prologue out there to see if there would be any interest in such a story.
> 
> As always, comments/feedback and kudos are appreciated.
> 
> twitter: @lovelyjjix  
> cc: curiouscat.me/lovelyjjix


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